


Sixteen Years Later

by ThePrettiestOfLights



Series: The Echo AU [2]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Drowning, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Its complicated idk, Murder, Suicide, kinda???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-07-26 01:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7555726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePrettiestOfLights/pseuds/ThePrettiestOfLights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been sixteen years since the events of The Young Offenders Grade School, and Kim- no, Echo- has moved on.<br/>But when an old friend approaches Echo in a coffee shop, everything changes, and she's thrown back into a life she'd tried desperately to forget.</p>
<p>[This is the sequel to The Young Offenders Grade School. You MUST read that before you read this one, or it won't make sense.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Lot Can Happen in Sixteen Years

**Author's Note:**

> WAHEY IT'S HERE!  
> I'm so so excited for this! I hope you like it as much as I do!  
> It's a short first chapter, sorry!  
> SMT, thanks for suggesting I write a sequel!

At fifteen years old, Echo Richards lost her twin sister, Kim, and took over her life to keep a secret, and to protect her friends.  
But she was still an Echo.  
At seventeen years old, Echo Richards moved across the country to a new school, leaving all her old friends behind.  
But she was still an Echo.  
At nineteen years old, Echo Richards had isolated herself from everyone she could.  
But she was still an Echo.  
At twenty-one years old, Echo Richards wasn’t sure if she was Kim Richards, or Echo.  
Was she really an Echo? Had it been a dream?  
At twenty-three years old, Echo Richards was in and out of hospital more times than she could count.  
The line between ‘Echo’ and ‘Human’ had blurred.  
At twenty-five years old, Echo Richards was slowly recovering.  
‘Echo’ and ‘Human’ weren’t any different to her anymore.  
At twenty-seven years old, Echo Richards had almost forgotten about her twin sister.  
‘Echo’ no longer had any meaning.  
At twenty-nine years old, Echo Richards was back in Bristol with a stable job as a video editor, an apartment, and even had a few friends.  
‘Echo’ was a word she rarely thought of.  
If you asked thirty-one-year-old Echo Richards what the Echoes were, she wouldn’t be able to tell you.  
Because Echo Richards had forgotten.  
But the others had not.  
The others could never forget Echo Richards, or her twin sister, Kim...


	2. Kim? Kim Richards?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim is approached by an old friend...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things actually happen in this one!  
> Yay!

Kim sat at her favourite table with her headphones on in the little coffee shop across the road from her flat. She always went there when she was sick of her office at home, and the addition of coffee made it one of her favourite places to be. She knew the owner well, a girl by the name of Fiona, who wore a camo jacket and rainbow wristbands. She would bring Kim a refill of coffee or a sandwich if she had gotten to into her work, and she’d forgotten to do basic things, like eat and drink. Kim would always pay Fiona back afterwards, no matter how much she insisted she didn’t want Kim’s money. Kim made her take it, insisting ‘Friends don’t take advantage of each other, and we’re friends, right?’ Fiona would laugh and take the money, as she didn’t have much to spare. Her little shop wasn’t very busy, Kim being her only regular customer.  
Kim would come into the coffee shop around twelve, order a coffee, sit down with her laptop and start working. Every two hours, Fiona would bring more coffee, sometimes with biscuits, and around four, Kim would get a sandwich. At six o’clock, Kim would go home, and Fiona would lock up. They did this a few times a week for over two years.  
Until one rainy day, something changed. Kim came in as normal, got her coffee, but less than an hour later, she was tapped lightly on the shoulder. Assuming it was Fiona coming to ask her something, Kim looked up with a smile. However, it wasn’t Fiona, it was a red-haired girl, wearing a leather jacket and patterned leggings. Kim removed her headphones.  
“Can I help you?” Kim asked, closing the lid of her laptop.  
“Are you Kim, Kim Richards?” The girl asked, sitting down across from her. She set her handbag and coffee down on the table and smiled.  
“Yes, I am. And who might you be?” Kim asked, an extremely faint bell of recognition ringing in the back of her mind. Did she live nearby, or in Kim’s apartment building? Had she been in the shop before? Did she know Fiona?  
“I’m Katie, Katie Morrison?” The girl supplied. “Your old school friend?” She tried.  
Kim shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t remember going to school with anyone called Katie Morrison.”  
“Are you sure you don’t remember me?” Katie asked. “You know, Katie from YOGS? Chris Trott’s girlfriend? Elora Galanadel? Your best friend for, what, three years or so?”  
“I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you.” Kim said. The girl sighed, and started searching through her bag. She pulled out a photograph and placed it on the table. “Call me when you remember. My numbers on the back.” She said, before picking up her handbag and coffee, and leaving with a small wave to Fiona.  
Kim watched Katie try and shield her face from the rain and jog down the street. Kim moved her laptop out of the way and pulled the photograph towards her. It was a picture of fourteen teenagers, the youngest looked about fourteen, the oldest looked to be seventeen, standing in front of a brick wall. More bells of recognition rang in Kim’s mind, so she looked closer at each person.  
The first was a blond-haired boy, wearing a red and black suit. The bells of recognition rang louder, and a name formed in Kim’s mind.  
William. No, no he didn’t go by William, or Will. He went by his last name. Strife, that was his name. William Strife, the aspiring businessman.  
Strife had his arm around a taller brunette boy, with scars up and down his arms and a band t-shirt. Alex Parvis, Strife’s best friend. The lovable idiot. Kim smiled, and scanned the rest of the photograph, names connecting with faces as the bells of recognition got even louder.  
Martyn Littlewood, who could get through any lock if he tried hard enough (Even if he had to kick the door down in the end).  
Toby Cottrell, Martyn’s partner in crime, who looked innocent enough, but had pulled off as many stunts as the rest of them, if not more.  
Zoey Proasheck, a happy-go-lucky girl who for some reason kept a gun on her person.  
Rythian Enderborn, the Swedish exchange student who never left Zoey alone.  
Tee Evans, Rythian and Zoey’s mute companion.  
Katie Morrison, one of Kim’s best friends until she moved away and lost contact with her, the same Katie Morrison who had found her in the coffee shop.  
Chris Trott, Katie’s boyfriend, one-third of Hat Films, wearing his walrus hat.  
Ross Hornby, the second-third of Hat Films, using Trott’s head as an arm rest.  
Alex Smith, the other third of Hat Films, his bright green hair shining under the sunlight.  
Duncan Jones, the mad scientist who blew up a school.  
Hannah Rutherford, Duncan’s half sister, and probably the only responsible one out of the group.  
Nilesy Mackay, Hannah’s best friend, who had a habit of flooding places when he was bored or irritated.  
And finally, Kim Richards, standing awkwardly on the end, smiling shyly at the camera.  
Kim remembered when this was taken. It was Late-October, and the students of The Young Offenders Grade School always took a photograph at that time of year. Hannah had insisted Kim be in the photograph, despite only being at the school for a month and a half. Kim smiled, as memories of the school came flooding back to her. She remembered the birthday parties, Christmas, messing around at break times, lessons, the basement...  
Wait, that couldn’t be right.  
The school hadn't had a basement? No, it did! The door was in the science corridor. Kim had been into it once, god knows why, but…  
Kim Richards had died in that basement. Kim Richards had been shot by Lewis Brindley, an ex-student of a school, while trying to defend… someone, Kim couldn’t remember who.  
But, that didn’t make sense. Kim Richards was alive. She was Kim Richards.  
Suddenly, the memory of the Echo experiments resurfaced.  
She wasn’t Kim Richards, not really.  
She was an Echo. _The_ Echo who ended it all.  
She was Echo Richards, and she remembered.  
Echo packed up her laptop and headphones quickly, picked up the photograph and left the coffee shop without so much as a wave to Fiona. She ran across the street in the rain, and entered her apartment building. She pulled out her keys as she flipped the photograph over to see what was written on the back.  
_Call me when you remember us._  
_-KM_  
Written underneath was a phone number. Once Echo was inside her apartment, she threw her coat onto a hook, kicked of her shoes and unlocked her phone. She dialled the number as she sat down on the sofa.  
“Hello?” Katie answered on the third ring.  
“Katie Morrison?” Echo asked.  
“Yes?” Katie asked.  
“My name is Echo Richards, and I remember everything.” Echo said, although she wasn’t sure if she did remember everything. Things were still fuzzy, like some of the memories weren’t really her own.  
“Thank god.” Katie laughed. “We need your help.”  
“My help? With what?” Echo asked, assuming ‘we’ meant the people in the photograph.  
“Do you remember Lewis, Simon, Duncan, Tee and Hannah?” Katie asked. Echo could hear someone talking in the background.  
“Yes.” Echo replied. Of course she remembered them; they were the reason her sister was dead. The five of them had disappeared without a trace eighteen years ago.  
Katie was silent for a moment. “Well, they’re back.”  
“Back?” Echo asked. “You mean back in Bristol?”  
“We don’t think they ever really left Bristol, just kept their heads down so we wouldn’t notice them. The only thing we do know is they’re doing the Echo Experiments again, disguised as a medical laboratory named YogLabs.” Katie supplied.  
“YogLabs? Great way to be inconspicuous.” Echo said sarcastically.  
“Yeah, well, they were never good at being subtle.” Katie said. “We need your help to stop them and free the Echoes they’re keeping captive. You in?”  
“I am so in.” Echo said.  
“Okay, we need somewhere to meet up. Any suggestions?” Katie asked.  
“How about that coffee shop you found me in. The girl who works there is lovely, and she could do with the customers.” Echo suggested.  
“Sounds good. We’ll meet you there tomorrow, twelve o’clock?” Katie asked.  
“I’ll see you there.” Echo replied, and she hung up. 


	3. Call it a... School Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone meets up in Fiona's coffee shop, but there's bad news...

Echo arrived at the coffee shop half an hour earlier than she usually did.  
“Fair warning, a load of my old school friends are coming in at about twelve.” Echo told Fiona after she’d ordered her coffee.  
“Really? Why?” Fiona asked.  
“Call it a… school reunion.” Echo said with a smile.  
Fiona raised an eyebrow. “A school reunion? What are you, forty?”  
“I’m thirty-one, cheeky!” Echo said, and Fiona laughed as she handed Echo her coffee. “We just felt like meeting up, it’s been a while.”  
“Ah, I see. I’ll talk to you later, Kim.” Fiona said with a smile. Echo smiled back, and sat down at the biggest table at the far end of the coffee shop. She pushed a couple more tables next to it so there would be enough room for everyone.   
Ten minutes later, a familiar face walked through the door and ordered a coffee. It was Toby.  
“Hey! Hey, Toby!” Echo waved. Toby looked over and smiled. Fiona handed him his coffee, and Toby walked over to Echo’s table and sat down across from her.  
“Hey, Ec-Kim.” Toby corrected himself quickly.  
“You can call me Echo, Toby, as long as you’re not too loud about it.” Echo whispered. “Is Martyn not with you?”  
“Did- did Katie not tell you?” Toby asked, wide-eyed.  
“Tell me what?” Echo asked, taking a sip of her coffee. “Honestly, she told me very little, just that you needed my help with… something.”  
“Martyn… Martyn died in a car accident a few months ago.” Toby said quietly.  
“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Echo gasped, placing her coffee down on the table. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking.”  
“It was a hit-and-run, happened while he was walking home from work, the police think.” Toby said.  
“Jesus Christ. Did they catch the guy who did it?” Echo asked.  
“No, they have no witnesses, no CCTV footage, nothing to lead them to the guy who murdered him.” Toby said sadly.  
“That’s awful.” Echo said.  
“Yeah. Anyway, how are you? It’s been, what, fourteen years since you moved away?” Toby asked. “That’s a long time to get a lot of things done.”  
“Oh, I’m fine.” Echo insisted. “Nothing too interesting has happened to me.”  
“Nothing? Haven’t you got a job? Or do you spend all your time in this coffee shop?” Toby asked.  
“As a matter of fact, both.” Echo laughed. “I work from home as a video editor, so I come to this place when I get sick of my flat.”  
“You live near here?” Toby asked.  
“Just across the road.” Echo confirmed. “Do you still live in Bristol?”  
“Nah, I moved away a long time ago.” Toby said. They chatted for another five minutes before everyone else started to arrive.  
Rythian arrived alone. Rythian patted Toby’s shoulder and shook Echo’s hand. He still wore the scarf around his face. He told Echo Zoey was back in prison for armed robbery a few years after he’d moved back to Sweden. Rythian had moved into her apartment, so Zoey had somewhere to live when she got out in a year’s time.  
Nilesy and Katie came in together. They hadn’t meant to; they’d just arrived at the same time. Echo apologised for the way she’d treated Katie the day before, but Katie brushed her off, saying it didn’t matter. Katie told them she worked part time as a receptionist, and Nilesy said he was a lifeguard. Echo pointed out the irony of this. Nilesy told her to shut up. Katie informed Echo that Ross had died a month earlier in a freak accident, and told her not to mention it to Smith or Trott, in case one of them started crying again.  
“I can’t deal with one of them having a mental breakdown, not right now.” Katie sighed.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t say a word.” Echo assured her.  
Strife and Parvis turned up five minutes late, arguing. Strife insisted they were late because Parvis had taken forever in the shower. Parvis insisted they weren’t late, because the Hats weren’t with them yet. Strife put his head in his hands and sighed. Echo laughed at them both.  
Smith and Trott arrived ten minutes later. Smith’s hair was no longer green, and Trott had gotten rid of the walrus hat. Echo didn’t mention Ross, and neither did they.  
“Right, now we’ve all decided to turn up…” Katie glared at Trott and Smith for a second. “We need to form a plan.”  
“Okay, a plan is great, but can someone explain what exactly is going on? For Echo’s benefit, obviously.” Parvis said, glancing at Echo. “I was definitely listening when Strife told me.”  
“Yes, right.” Katie shifted to a more comfortable position. “You all remember Lewis Brindley, Simon Lane, Duncan Jones, Hannah Rutherford, and Tee Evans. Well, Martyn found them. Toby, would you like to explain exactly _how_ Martyn found them?” Katie asked.  
“Okay, I’d just like to say, I did not condone what Martyn did, and I wasn’t in any way involved, I promise.” Toby said when everyone turned to him. “I wasn’t even in Bristol at the time. The only reason I know is because he called me.”  
“That’s a worrying way to start a story.” Nilesy said.  
Toby ignored him. “Martyn broke into YogLabs, not realising exactly what it was because he’s an idiot, and heard Hannah and Simon talking. He reckoned he heard Duncan and Lewis as well until Tee saw him and chased him off the premises.”  
“Okay, back up.” Echo said. “Lewis is dead. Zoey shot him. We all saw it happen.”  
“That’s what Martyn told me, and I trust him.” Toby shrugged.  
“Technically, Echo, you’re dead, but here we are.” Trott said.  
“Ah, good point. Sorry, carry on Toby.” Echo smiled.  
“Martyn said they were talking about the Echoes, specifically Echo Richards, and they were planning to find and kidnap you, or at least Simon was.  
“Hannah seemed pretty against the idea, something about it being illegal and immoral.” Toby finished.  
“I’m glad she’s taking the moral high-ground on this one.” Rythian muttered.  
“This is really worrying, we were done with this, we’ve all moved on, we even destroyed the book.” Strife said. “None of you have to be involved in this if you don’t want to, but they might come after us either way.”  
“Like they did with Martyn and Ross.” Smith said, staring down at his coffee.  
“You don’t think it was an accident?” Echo asked.  
“Of course it wasn’t a bloody accident.” Smith looked up at her. “Martyn finds out Lewis and his gang of assholes are still in town, he gets run over. Ross tries to do some research into YogLabs’ background and their funding, he gets pushed down an escalator. I’m pretty damn sure it’s not a coincidence.”  
“It doesn’t matter, what matters is Ross and Martyn are dead, Lewis is meant to be dead, but isn’t, and we need to sort this out before any one else gets hurt.” Parvis said. “That includes Zoey, by the way. You all think she’s untouchable, because she’s safely locked up in her cell, but we thought we were untouchable when we were teenagers, and look what happened.”  
“He’s right, we need to keep an eye on Zoey and keep her updated on everything that’s happening. She has every right to know.” Rythian nodded.  
“This may sound mad, but why don’t we try, you know, calling the police?” Nilesy asked.  
“Oh yeah, that’ll be a fun conversation. ‘Hey, we think a medical lab down town might be experimenting on innocent people. We don’t have any proof, but their leader murdered our friend. Our friend then murdered him, but that was sixteen years ago!’” Echo said, shaping her hand like a phone and holding it up to her ear.  
“Alright, point taken.” Nilesy laughed. “But we can’t do this alone, we’re just a bunch of thirty-year-olds with, as it stands, no plan, very little money, two of us are already dead and one of us is in jail.”  
“We don’t need money, and Zoey being in jail doesn’t matter.” Katie said, purposely avoiding the subject of Martyn and Ross. “However, we do need a plan. Any suggestions?”  
“Infiltrate the facility, find out as much information as possible.” Echo suggested. “Then we can figure what we’re going to do from there.”  
“One problem, they’ll recognise us.” Strife pointed out. “If they recognised Martyn, they’ll recognise any one of us, even Katie.”  
“It’s true, none of us have changed all that much.” Trott said. “I mean, I recognised you all straight away, and we haven’t seen each other in, what, ten years, at least.”  
“They already know we’re on to them, because they knew Ross was researching them.” Nilesy added. “They’re probably tracking us right now!”  
“I don’t want to cause an issue, but I think Nilesy is right.” Rythian whispered. “Don’t turn around, don’t make it obvious you’re looking but if you can see out of the window, look at the hooded figure and tell me who they remind you of.” Everyone who was sitting on Rythian’s side of the table, Nilesy, Strife, Toby and Parvis moved so they could see out of the window properly. Katie and Echo pulled out their mirrors and pretended to check their makeup. Trott knocked Smith’s phone off the table so they had to turn around and pick it up.  
“Holy shit.” Parvis whispered. “That’s Duncan Jones.”  
Echo shook her head, moving her mirror to the left slightly. His hair was too long, his eyes were red, and he had a scar running down the side of his face. “That’s not Duncan, that’s Lalnable Hector, his Echo.” She jumped up and ran out of the shop and onto the street. Lalnable stood across the road from Echo, staring at her with a blank expression. Echo watched him for a moment before a bus passed between them, and Lalnable disappeared. Echo heard Katie run out behind her.  
“Where is he?” She asked, putting a hand on Echo’s shoulder.  
“I- He’s gone.” Echo whispered, staring at the space he’d been standing in. “If Lalnable’s here, Duncan’s nearby. We need to disband before he finds us together.”  
“Good idea.” Katie agreed, and they walked back to the others. “Alright, we need to abandon ship. Echo reckons Duncan’s around, and if they thing we’re plotting something, it’ll become a serious problem.”  
Everyone said their goodbyes and left in different directions, leaving Fiona a massive tip in the process. Echo was the last person left in the coffee shop, and Fiona called her over just before she left.  
“When you said your old school friends were coming, I didn’t expect that.” Fiona laughed. “I assumed you went to a fancy private school or something.”  
“I did for a while, but I went to school in Bristol for a few years as well. They’re an alright bunch, if a little mad.” Echo laughed.  
“Yeah, they also left me about a tenner in tips, so remind them to come here again!” Fiona joked.  
“Most of them aren’t local to Bristol anymore, but I’m sure the ones who are will be back.” Echo smiled. “I’ll see you later, Fi!” Echo waved as she walked out the shop.  
“See ya Kim!” Fiona waved back.


	4. No One Robs a Bank Accidentally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Echo visits Zoey in prison.  
> Surprisingly, it goes well!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMT I swear I'm writing the gifts for you I'm just taking forever to do it!

“Are you trying to tell me you did this on purpose?” Echo asked quietly, as not to be heard by the guards standing nearby.  
“No one robs a bank accidentally, Echo.” Zoey smiled, leaning back in her chair.  
“No, I meant you got yourself into _prison_ on purpose.” Echo sighed. “Why would you do that; prison is not a fun place.”  
“Ah, it’s not all bad.” Zoey shrugged. “Free food, health care, a roof over my head, and Rythian moved back to England. I’d say it was the best case scenario.”  
“Are you going to answer the question?” Echo asked.  
“What are you, the police?” Zoey asked. “I was on a mission.”  
“A mission? What are you, a secret agent?” Echo lent back and took in Zoey’s appearance again. Red hair, a smile that could light up any room, tattoos on her arms, she didn’t look much different. But there was definitely something different about Zoey, Echo couldn’t put her finger on it.  
“Something like that. I was looking for Hannah Rutherford. Not all off us forgot about the Echoes, or what happened sixteen years ago.” Zoey drummed her fingers on the table between them. “Sources said she was here, but by the time I got in, she was already out.”  
“Out? Escaped or let out?” Echo asked.  
“What do you think?” Zoey tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear. “I’ll tell you something, the inmates don’t miss her one bit. She was threatening people, saying she had contacts in high up places. They didn’t doubt it, either.”  
“Do they know where Hannah is now? The police, I mean.” Echo asked.  
“Not a clue, according to my friend on the force.” Zoeya shrugged. “They don’t even think she’s still in the country. Apparently Spain is nice this time of year.”  
“Well, I’m guessing you heard what Martyn found.” Echo said.  
“And how he and Ross ended up, yes.” Zoeya glanced around before leaning forward and lowering her voice. “I know everyone thinks I’m safe in here, but there’s rumour spreading, something my cellmate heard.”  
“Parvis doesn’t think your safe, neither does Rythian, or me for that matter.” Echo leaned in as well so she could hear Zoey better. “What did your cellmate hear?”  
“My cellmate overheard a conversation about YogLabs during dinner a couple of months back. She knew I have an interest in them, so she relayed it to me.  
“Apparently they’re trying to locate a group of people, and, in their words, ‘One of them’s in here, five or six live in Bristol, one moved from Sweden recently, the rest are dotted around the country. They’ve already gotten rid of one, made it look like an accident, and they’re paying whoever can find the others and get rid of them.’” Zoey whispered, a look of pure terror on her face. “That’s all she got before she had to move away from their table.”  
“Zoey… but it’s just a rumour, right?” Echo asked, fear striking her. If they found out where any of of them lived…  
“A rumour with a lot of truth in it. That conversation happened the day before Ross died; Rythian had moved from Sweden a year earlier, I’m in here, you, Parvis, Strife, Katie, Trott, and Smith all live in Bristol, and Martyn, Toby and Nilesy live somewhere else in the country.” Zoey whispered. “They know, Echo. They know what we’re doing, and they are hell-bent on stopping us, no matter what it takes.  
“And Lewis is still alive! Well, it’s not Lewis, it’s an Echo, but he still has the same screwed up morals. Hannah and Tee are the only ones who don’t have Echoes, but I think they’re trying to make more, god knows how-”  
“Calm down, Zoey, I get it. We need to stop them before they… and then we need you out of here.” Echo said firmly. “You get out next year, right?” Zoey nodded. “Okay, do you have anyone in here you trust?”  
“Only my cellmate, Nina.” Zoey said. “I had Anya as well, but she’s long gone.”  
“Nina is the only one who can know I came to visit you. If anyone else asks, my name is Emily White. I’m using a pseudonym; I don’t want people finding me.” Echo said. “I’m not even staying in my apartment at the moment, it’s too close to our meet up point.”  
“We have a meet up point?” Zoey asked.  
“Yeah, it’s a coffee shop across the road from my apartment, the girl who owns it doesn’t get many customers, so I’m helping her out.” Echo smiled.  
“Sounds great. You planning on visiting me again anytime soon?” Zoey asked, the smile fading from her face when she realised it was nearly time for Echo to leave.  
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on everything. I might bring Katie next time; she seems to have put herself in charge.” Echo stood up.  
“She didn’t put herself in charge, I did.” Zoey smiled, leaning back in her chair.  
“Who put _you_ in charge?” Echo asked. Zoey laughed.  
“It was a democratic decision.” Zoey insisted.  
“Not a very good one, clearly.”  
“Hey!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw look, a nice little chapter where nothing goes wrong!  
> Yeah, that won't last long.


	5. Long Time No See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Echo runs into another old friend.  
> 'Friend' is a term I use loosely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my writers block has gone? Yay!  
> I'm kinda nervous about uploading this one? I don't know why, just am  
> Wednesdays chapter might be late, sorry!

Echo glanced back again, and then typed out another message. Using a pseudonym made texting each other difficult, as she had to get used to a whole new set of names.   
Echo: She’s still following me  
Katie: Are you sure it’s her?  
Toby: Could it be someone who looks like her?  
Parvis: Do you have a weapon?  
Liam: Are you in a busy place?  
Echo: Yes, Maybe, I wish, I’ve only seen two other people  
Strife: We’ll come and get you.  
Parvis: We will?  
Rythian: We can’t be seen together  
Toby: She can’t know we’re all in Bristol  
Echo: I’ll be fine, what is she going to do, kill me?  
Trott: Probably  
Smith: Kick her ass if possible, if not, I can head to Fi’s cafe and meet you there  
Liam: I’m already there  
Echo: I can’t go there if she’s following me  
Smith: Is she definitely following you?  
Echo glanced around again. Hannah had her hood up, but there was no mistaking that blonde hair and the glare she was being given.  
Echo: Yes  
Strife: Try and get on a bus and go somewhere crowded  
Rythian: Try and lose her  
Trott: Don’t lead her to us  
Toby: Just don’t get murdered  
Katie: Keep your phone on, I’ll try and track it  
Echo: I’m going to try and talk to her.  
Liam: Are you mad?  
Echo: Probably  
Echo: I’m going to act dumb and pretend I don’t know anything.  
Echo leant against a wall as she sent that last text, letting Hannah catch up with her.  
“Kim Richards.” Hannah pulled her hood down and shook her long blonde hair out. “Long time no see, isn’t it?”  
“Hannah Rutherford? Oh my gosh, how are you?” Echo laughed. “Sixteen years, and you haven’t changed a little bit!”  
“You’ve changed a lot, it seems. You’re taller.” Hannah smirked.  
“You’re not.” Echo remarked. “I thought you’d moved away from Bristol.”  
“I did, but I’m back, just like you, it seems.” Hannah folded her arms. “What are you up to these days? Other than wandering around Bristol meeting up with old friends?”  
“Oh, I got a job as a video editor, I work from home at the moment. Where are you working, an owl sanctuary?” Echo asked, trying to cover her terror with humour.  
“No, I work in a medical laboratory.” Hannah said. “But you know all about that, don’t you, Echo.”  
Echo froze. Her plan had failed. She blindly sent a text, glad for once she spent enough time on her phone to be able to text one-handed without looking.  
Echo: She knows  
Echo slipped her phone back into her pocket and smiled. “Ah, yes. How’s Lewis by the way, I heard you resurrected him.”  
“Nah, we left him to rot along with the real Kim.” Hannah shrugged. “They just replaced him, like your ‘friends’ did with you.”  
“Well, it was nice to see you Hannah, but I have places to be, people to see, governments to overthrow.” Echo pushed herself off the wall and tried to walk away, but Hannah put a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back.  
“I don’t think so. See, they need more Copies, or Echoes, as I suppose you and your little gang call them.” Hannah smiled. “I’m afraid you’re coming with me.”  
“No.” Echo pulled her shoulder away, but didn’t move. “That ain’t happening.”  
“I don’t want to do this, Echo, but I don’t have a choice.” Hannah whispered.  
“You always have a choice, Hannah. Kim had a choice when she saved my life. Martyn had a choice when he switched sides, so did Ross. I had a choice three days ago, when Katie walked up to me and asked me if I remembered her. You always have a choice.” Echo insisted.  
Hannah laughed. “You don’t get it, do you? Either I do this, or I lose my brother, my home, and possibly my life. None of us have had a choice, not since Parvis took our research all those years ago, not since we started the Experiments, not since I was fifteen-years-old.”  
“You have a choice now. Let me go, pretend I got away, let me get away. Tell them I didn’t tell you were the others were, but you know they’ve all left Bristol and aren’t planning on coming back until Zoey has been let out.” Echo said. “Let us do this, let us help you.”  
“None of you can help me, not anymore. Not while they’re in control of my life.” Hannah whispered. “And I can’t help you.” Hannah straightened herself out so she towered over Echo. Hannah went to pull out her phone from her pocket and call someone when she collapsed to the ground with a yelp. Behind her stood a hooded man with blonde hair hanging over his eyes, glasses, a scar running down his face and bright red eyes. He looked up at Echo, a murderous glint in his eyes.  
It was Lalnable.  
“Lalnable? What are you doing here?” Echo exclaimed. She kicked Hannah with her foot, not bothering to be gentle. She was out cold.  
“Rescuing you. William is on his way here; Lewis doesn’t know where you are. I can’t be seen here; I’m not meant to be alive.” Lalnable turned around and started walking down the empty street.  
Echo stood still for a moment, trying to think of something to say. “Lalnable?” She called. Lalnable looked back. “Thank you, and… I’m sorry, for what they’ve done to you.” Echo smiled. “We’ll stop them.”  
Lalnable turned right around to face her. “This is bigger than you or me, or Lewis and Simon. This isn’t just a bunch of idiots doing some experiments. This has been going on for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. We have to hit this at the source. Erase every trace of the Copies.”  
“But, won’t people just discover us again?” Echo asked.  
Lalnable shrugged. “If you can delay this, you can find a way to prevent it.” He turned around, and walked off down the street  
Echo watched him go. When he was out of sight, she pulled out her phone and quickly walked down the street.  
Echo: I’m okay. Hannah’s out cold. I’ll meet you at Fiona’s tomorrow morning, ten o’clock.  
Smith: Sounds good.  
Strife: I’m on my way to you, you’ll have to stay with me and Parv  
Rythian: Thank god you’re okay  
Toby: You knocked her out?  
Echo: I’ll explain later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a tumblr btw  
> theprettiestoflights  
> Follow me, ask me a question, I probably won't be on there much because I'm bad at remembering to do things, but oh well!


	6. We Need a Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny bit of Parvill, because, you know,  
> Parvill.

“Parv, we need to leave!” Strife called from the bottom of the stairs. Echo was texting Katie, giving her a description of Lalnable so she could tell the difference between him and Duncan, just in case one of them tried to talk to her or anyone else in the group.  
“I’m _coming_!” Parvis yelled from somewhere upstairs. Echo looked up in vague interest.  
“Does he always oversleep?” She asked. Strife nodded.  
“Every time we have to go somewhere or do something important, yes.” He sighed. “One day, he will stop playing video games at two am and get something productive done.”  
“I do lots of productive things!” Parv said as he ran down the stairs, pulling on his coat.  
“Give me one example.” Strife said, folding his arms. Then he frowned. “You wore that shirt yesterday.”  
“And you wore that frown yesterday, Strifey!” Parvis kissed him on the cheek before opening the front door. “Come along, Echo, we’re going to be late!”  
Strife put his head in his hands and sighed. “I swear to god…” Echo laughed and followed Parvis out of the door.  
“How far is Fiona’s place from here?” Echo asked. Parvis shrugged.  
“Good question. STRIIIIIFE?” Parvis called back. Strife looked over after he’d locked the door.  
“What?” He asked.   
“How far is Fiona’s shop from here?” Parvis asked.  
“It’s only a twenty-minute walk. I told you this two days ago.” Strife said.  
“Did you? I wasn’t listening.” Parvis said, and he started walking down the street.  
“Of course you weren’t, you never bloody do.” Strife hissed under his breath, causing Echo to giggle. They followed Parvis to Fiona’s coffee shop, assuming they’d be the last ones to arrive. Fortunately, they weren’t, as Nilesy and Toby hadn’t turned up yet either. They sat down with their coffees and started talking with Katie, Rythian, Trott and Smith about Hannah’s attempt to kidnap Echo, Lalnable’s sudden appearance and what it could mean in relation to Duncan. Half an hour later, Nilesy and Toby were still absent.  
“I’ll call Toby, Rythian, you call Nilesy.” Katie said as concern rose between them.  
“No, let me call Toby.” Echo said.   
“Alright.” Katie said with a shrug. Echo and Rythian went outside with their phones and stood on opposite sides of the door to call Nilesy and Toby.  
Echo went straight to voicemail three times before Toby picked up.  
“Emily?” Toby answered. Echo faltered for a moment. Toby had Echo saved under a pseudonym in his contacts, as he did for everyone else. If he was answering the phone as “Emily” instead of “Echo”, or “Kim”, he was in trouble.  
Echo made her voice higher, more sing-song. “Hey Tyler, you were supposed to be here an hour ago! Where are you buddy?” Rythian gave her a strange look. He still wasn’t through to Nilesy. Echo shook her head at him and put the phone on speaker  
“Oh, yeah, me and Lee got a bit caught up, but we’ll be at the park in ten minutes.” Toby said. He was coding his language now, something they’d come up with as a joke when they were in school. Echo was surprised he still remembered it, and even more surprised that she did. He was with Nilesy, but someone unwanted was there as well. Rythian mouthed something to Echo.  
“Go along with it.”   
Echo nodded.  
“Did you or did you not stop off for a coffee before you came here and get distracted?” Echo asked. She was asking if the people he was with knew about the coffee shop, and if they were threatening him.  
“Uh, we might have.” Toby laughed nervously. “Is everyone else at the park?”  
“Oh yeah, we’re all here. How far away are you? We can’t start the picnic until you turn up.” Echo said. Rythian rolled his eyes. “Shut up.” Echo mouthed. “It’s working.”  
“Not far, but Lee has lost his phone, in case you were trying to call him.” Toby said. “Is Karla with you as well?” Rythian had run inside to quickly tell the others what was happening. Kim slowly walked in behind him, careful to keep the door open so it didn’t make a noise, and placed the phone on the table once they were all quiet  
“Like I said, we’re all here. Say hi, Karla!” Echo said.  
“Hey Tyler, where you at?” Katie asked, her voice lower than usual. Toby didn’t reply, but they could hear muffled shouting and rushed footsteps on the other end. After a minute of this, the shouting died down slightly, but the footsteps continued for another two minutes until Toby spoke again.  
“Remind me… never to run… it sucks…” He panted. “We… We lost the gang who jumped us.”  
“Oh thank god.” They all laughed with relief.  
“One problem, they’ve got my phone, meaning they have our phone numbers.” Nilesy said. “Luckily, they didn’t get our real names, and they think you’re in a park somewhere.”  
“I knew that code would come in handy some day.” Echo smiled.  
“No you didn’t, you only made it because you were bored and The Hats had a code too.” Strife said. Echo shot him a glare.  
“Toby, Nilesy, are you still being followed?” Katie asked.  
“No, no we definitely lost them.” Toby confirmed. “They’re not the smartest of people, they didn’t even check with Lewis what our real names are.”  
“You think the gang was sent by Lewis?” Smith asked.  
“Of course they were, why else would they attack Toby and Nilesy?” Trott asked.  
“I don’t know, Nilesy has a very attackable face.” Rythian said.  
“HEY!” Nilesy yelled as he and Toby walked in through the coffee shop door and sat down. “That was so uncalled for!”  
“Thank god you two aren’t dead.” Parvis said. “I don’t think I could deal with losing two more friends.”  
“Well, we need to form a plan before another one of us actually ends up dead.” Katie said. “Anyone got any ideas?”  
“Run away?” Toby suggested.  
“Reminder: Never run again.” Strife said.  
“Shut up.”  
“Anyone got a plan that will work?” Katie asked.  
“I stand with infiltration.” Echo said. “Katie, have you even considered dying your hair back to it’s natural colour?”  
“No way, that is not happening.” Trott said firmly. “We can’t send her in there, they’ll recognise her straight away!”  
“Not- not if I dyed my hair, did my makeup differently and changed my voice a little. Echo can’t do it, neither can Toby or Nilesy, they’ll definitely be recognised, and I won’t allow any of the rest of you to.” Katie said. “I’ll act as a receptionist or pretend to be looking for Lewis, and you can sneak in another way while I cause a distraction.”  
“No, I won’t let you, it’s too dangerous!” Trott exclaimed.  
“I could do it. They won’t recognise me.” Fiona said from in front of her counter, startling everyone.  
“Have you been eavesdropping on us?” Strife asked.  
“You guys are very loud, so it wasn’t really eavesdropping.” Fiona smiled. “And Nilesy told me everything anyway.”  
“ _NILESY_!” They all yelled.  
“What? She kept giving me coffee until I told her what she wanted to know!” Nilesy exclaimed. “And she knew a load of stuff anyway, I just filled her in a bit.”  
“Guys, she does have a right to know. We’ve practically hijacked her shop and taken advantage of her hospitality massively.” Smith said.  
“Do you really want to help us? This isn’t your problem.” Rythian said.   
“Do I really want to take down a mega-evil corporation and help my friends in the process? Hell yes.” Fiona said. “Also, it’s not taking advantage if you’re giving me money.”  
“Thank you, Fiona.” Echo smiled.   
Fiona shrugged. “Friends help each other, and we’re friends, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a reasonably happy chapter, right?  
> Fiona's helping out, everyone is alive, nothing really bad is happening.  
> It all goes to hell in the next chapter, don't worry.


	7. Whose Idea Was This?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan is put into action!  
> It goes well, kinda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really long because I've been away for a while.  
> Basically it's an apology because I really appreciate everyone who reads my writing no matter how utterly crap it is.  
> Thank you for putting up with me!  
> Love you all!

“Remind me again why I have to wear a dress?” Fiona asked, tugging at the hem of the knee-length brown dress Katie had leant her. Fiona had completely rejected the high heels, but Kim wouldn’t allow her to wear converse, so they compromised.  
“Because you look fabulous, darling.” Echo insisted. Katie giggled.  
“I _hate_ dresses.” Fiona complained.  
“So do I, but you’re meant to be a new receptionist, and receptionists wear dresses.” Echo said.  
“Didn’t you wear a dress everyday when we were in school?” Katie asked.  
“Two things. One, it was a Kimono. Two, that was over fifteen years ago, man!” Echo exclaimed. Katie and Fiona laughed.  
“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to…” Katie said.  
“No, I want to help.” Fiona said. “Could you explain the plan again quickly, just so I’m one-hundred-percent clear on what I have to do.”  
“Go into reception and tell the receptionist you’re there for the job interview with Lewis Brindley. Tell her your name is Felicity Rhodes, and hopefully she’ll send you up to his office. Once you’re in Lewis’ office, attach this to his desk.” Katie held out a small circular device, and Fiona took it. “Strife will hack into his computer from outside, take down the security systems, and we’ll be able to get in.”  
“Lewis will probably notice pretty quickly that he’s been hacked, so you’ll have to act like you have no idea what’s going on. Once he’s left the office, take the device and place it directly on his computer. It’ll make Strife’s job a lot easier.” Echo said. “If your cover is blown, get out of there as quickly as you can. You have the keys to Rythian’s car, right?” Fiona nodded, throwing the keys up in the air with one hand and catching them in the other. “Take it, get to the meet-up point. Strife will be in the car with his laptop, so you won’t be on your own.”  
“Got it. Get in, place the device, get out.” Fiona nodded. “Easy.”  
“We’ll be hanging outside the building until you place the device, then we’ll get inside the laboratory, do what we need to do, and meet you and Strife where we agreed.” Katie said.  
Echo hugged Fiona quickly. “Good luck, hun.” Echo smiled. “Don’t get yourself killed.”  
“You too.” Fiona smiled back.

* * *

Now she was in the building, Fiona wasn’t as nervous. The receptionist was a lovely blonde woman by the name of Anya, who sent Fiona up to Lewis’ office almost straight away.  
“Oh, one more thing, Felicity.” She said before Fiona got into the elevator. “Don’t look so worried, Lewis is really nice. You’ll be fine.” Anya smiled.   
Fiona smiled back gratefully. “Thank you.” She said before getting into the elevator and pressing the button for the eleventh floor. Fiona was alone in the elevator, so she went over the plan under her breath. “Attach the device to his desk. If he leaves, attach it to his computer. If he doesn’t, and your cover is blown, get out, get in the car, leave with Strife. Either way, don’t die and hope for the best.” Fiona laughed to herself quietly. “What’s the worst that can happen?”  
The elevator doors opened and Fiona stepped out. There were five doors in the corridor, two on each side and one at the end. Each door had frosted glass and something written at eye level. Fiona walked down the corridor, reading each door as she went.

**_Jon T. Evans_ **   
_Head of Security_

**_Hannah Rutherford_ **   
_Head of Research_

**_Duncan Jones_ **   
_Head of Scientific Endeavours_

**_Simon Lane_ **   
_Head of Workforce_   
_Co-Founder_

Fiona got to the last door and read the writing on the front.

**_Lewis Brindley_ **   
_CEO_   
_Co-Founder_

Fiona took a deep breath and knocked on the door.  
“Come in!” Came a voice from inside the office. Fiona pushed the door open and stepped inside. Sitting at the desk was a tall man with black hair and blue eyes wearing a suit, who looked up from a letter when Fiona entered. “Ah, Felicity Rhodes, right?”  
“Uh, yeah, that’s me.” Fiona nodded nervously.  
“Sit down, please.” Lewis gestured to a chair on Fiona’s side of the desk, which she sat in. He folded the letter carefully and smiled. “So, Anya tells me you have come for a job interview.”  
“That is correct.” Fiona smiled.  
“Well, I wasn’t aware we were looking for a new receptionist at this time, but I’m guessing that had something to do with Simon, our Head of Workforce.” Lewis said, clasping his hands together on the desk.   
“Yes, I believe that’s who I spoke to over the phone.” Fiona said, trying to keep her voice level as she carefully attached the device Katie had given her to the desk with one hand.  
“Of course.” Lewis smiled. “Now, Ms. Rhodes, I need to ask you some questions, but first, may I see your CV, please.”  
“Oh, yes, let me just find it for you.” Fiona started rummaging around in her bag for Felicity Rhodes’ fake CV, written by Toby. She pulled it out of the folder it had been kept in and handed it over the desk.  
“Right, let’s have a look at this-” Lewis suddenly glanced over at the computer and frowned. He placed Felicity’s CV on the desk and started typing on his keyboard, cursing under his breath a few times.  
“Is everything okay, Mr. Brindley?” Fiona asked.   
Lewis shook his head and sighed. “There’s a small issue with our security system, I need to attend to it. I’ll be back in a moment, Ms. Rhodes, stay right where you are.” He stood up and walked out of the office. When he was halfway down the corridor, Fiona heard him yell something along the lines of: “Tee, what the _hell_ is going on?”  
Fiona waited a moment before removing the device from the desk and attaching it to the computer. By the time she was back in her seat, Lewis was walking back down the corridor.  
“I apologise, Ms. Rhodes. Where were we?” Lewis asked as he sat back down in his chair.  
“You were about to read my CV.” Fiona supplied.  
“Ah yes, of course.” Lewis picked up the CV, but didn’t read it. He stared at Fiona for a second. “Sorry, Ms. Rhodes, have we met before?”  
“I- I don’t believe so, Sir. I think I would remember if we had.” Fiona said, her heart rate increasing. “I live locally, maybe you’ve seen me nearby?”  
“No, it’s not that.” Lewis drummed his fingers on the desk. “It’s something else, something important, but I can’t put my finger on it…”  
“Well, it can’t be _that_ important if you can’t remember.” Fiona insisted.   
“Indeed.” Lewis started reading through the CV. “A lot of previous experience, no criminal record, all your previous managers seem to love you, Ms. Rhodes.”  
“Well, I try my best.” Fiona said with a smile, the same one she used on her customers. Lewis put down Felicity’s CV and smiled back menacingly.  
“Ah, _now_ I know where I know you from.” He said. “You work at that little coffee shop down town.”  
“Uh, you must be confusing me with someone else.” Fiona said, trying to keep the nervous edge out of her voice. “My sister owns a coffee shop; you must be thinking of her.” A terrible lie. Fiona didn’t even have a sister.  
“No, it’s definitely you. You’re working with those bastards trying to ruin me and my company.” Lewis hissed. “Fiona, that’s your real name, isn’t it? Tell me, how did you get caught up in this mess? Was it the Copy, the one who calls herself… Echo?” He stood up, towering over Fiona. “It doesn’t matter, you and that band of idiots won’t get away with it, not this time.” He went to grab Fiona’s arm.  
Fiona punched him square in the face before fleeing down the corridor, leaving the CV and hacking device behind. She chose the stairs rather than the elevator, as she heard someone open their office door and shout something to her as she ran. Fiona got to the ground floor and to Rythian’s car without running into any other major obstacles. She frightened the living daylights out of Strife as she slammed the car door and pulled on her seatbelt.  
“What happened?” Strife asked, closing his laptop and grabbing his seatbelt.  
“My cover was blown, Lewis recognised me.” Fiona started the ignition and floored it. “I think they were watching my coffee shop, meaning they probably know where we’re all staying, and where we live.”  
“Shit. The others are already inside.” Strife informed her. “You did a pretty good job, considering.”  
“Thanks.” Fiona said, taking a left. “I thought I blew it pretty quickly.”  
“It took him nearly twenty minutes to recognise you. That’s not bad at all.” Strife said. “Do you know the way to the meet up point?”  
“Nah, I thought I’d just wing it.” Fiona deadpanned, and Strife wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.

* * *

“She’s in the elevator.” Echo whispered over the walkie-talkie. “Toby, is everyone in position?”  
“Yes, no signs of Tee or any other guards.” Toby replied.   
“Strife, how close is she?” Echo asked.   
“Not close enough. I think she’s just getting out of the elevator.” Strife said. “Wait, I’ve got something… Ah, Lewis’ computer, but the signal’s still quite weak.”  
“Can you get the security systems down yet?” Toby asked.  
“Give me a moment.” Strife said. “Any idea what his password could be?”  
“Hannah’s date of birth?” Toby suggested.  
“Correct.” Strife sounded surprised. “You’d think he’d have a better password than his girlfriend’s birthday.”  
“Just get us inside.” Echo sighed.  
“Security systems deactivated… now.” Strife said after ten minutes of tense waiting. “Good luck.”  
“Go, go!” Toby shouted to Smith. He nodded and he, Trott and Katie started cutting through the chain link fence, which is surprisingly weak. Toby knew Echo, Parvis, Rythian and Nilesy were doing the same on the other side of the building. Once there was a large enough whole for them to get through, Katie ducked through and ran to a side door, which, fortunately but strangely, was wide open. Trott went next, then Smith, and finally Toby. They found themselves in an empty, stark white corridor. Toby closed the door behind them quickly and shoved his walkie-talkie into his pocket.  
“Which way do we go now?” Smith asked.  
“Let me check the map.” Toby pulled a map of the building out of his jacket pocket and unfolded it.  
“Back up, where did you get a map?” Trott asked, bewildered.  
“Martyn stole it while he was in here.” Toby said, not looking up from the map.  
“Why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Katie exclaimed.  
Toby shrugged. “No one brought it up.”  
“No one brought it u- Toby, you will be the death of me.” Katie sighed.  
“Hopefully not literally.” Smith commented.  
“Are we going for the generator first?” Toby asked.  
“That’s the plan.” Trott said. “Left or right?”  
“Right.” Toby said. “There should be signs at the end of each corridor, according to Martyn, so we won’t get lost.”  
They started walking down the corridor that extended to the right, and there were indeed signs at the end of each corridor. Surprisingly, they didn’t meet anyone on the way to the generator. There were no staff, no security guards or alarms, nothing. It was eerily quiet.  
They found the door labeled ‘Generator’. Katie stopped them from opening the door straight away.  
“Guys, if we get attacked we need to be able to defend ourselves.” She reached into the backpack she was carrying and pulled out four sharp butchers knifes. “So, I got us these.”  
“Katie, why are you carrying knifes around with you?” Trott asked.  
“Because we need to defend ourselves!” Katie insisted.  
“Mate, she does have a point. I’m not going to ask where you got four knifes from, but I agree.” Smith said. “Last time we came up against these guys, they had a gun, and we had a goddamn lighter!”  
“Last time, we won.” Trott pointed out.  
Toby took one of the knifes and held it up. “Hopefully we won’t have to use them.”  
“Hopefully.” Katie agreed. “Right, its time to sabotage a generator.”  
“Let’s do this.”

* * *

“Whose idea was this?” Echo whispered.  
“Yours! It was your idea!” Rythian hissed back.  
“Just checking who we should blame.” She whispered.  
“Blame for what? Our impending doom or the fact we’ve lost Parv?” Nilesy asked.  
“Depends which one will get me killed.” Echo said.  
“Both.” Rythian and Nilesy.  
“Great.” Echo sighed. “How exactly did we lose a six-foot adult male?”  
“Not sure.” Nilesy said quietly. “He just… disappeared.”  
“He was there one minute; he was gone the next.” Rythian shrugged. “And I’d use the term ‘adult’ lightly when describing Parvis.”  
“Maybe we should have put a leash on him, or left him with someone responsible.” Echo sighed.  
“Are you guys talking about me?” Parvis asked, crouching down next to them. They all jumped.  
“Parvis!” They hissed.  
“Where the hell have you been?” Echo asked.  
“We thought you were dead!” Nilesy said.  
“No we didn’t.” Rythian said.  
“Well, I did.” Nilesy shrugged.  
“I just went for a walk.” Parvis shrugged.  
“You went for a walk in a medical laboratory in the middle of an undercover operation?” Rythian asked. “What the hell is wrong with you, Parvis?”  
“Oh come one, I only knocked one person out.” Parvis whispered. “And I know where they’re keeping the Echoes.”  
“You do?” Echo asked. “Where?”  
“Just down there.” Parvis indicated to a corridor to the left. “One problem-” Suddenly, the power went out. “Two problems.”  
“Looks like the others have done their job.” Nilesy said. “What were you going to say, Parv?”  
“I was going to say ‘Duncan’s in the way of the Echo room’ until I was rudely interrupted.” Parvis answered, glaring up at the lights.   
“Come on, let’s go free some Echoes!” Echo said.  
“Echo, we can’t just waltz in there and expect Duncan to be okay with it.” Rythian said.  
“Remember how I said I knocked someone out?” Parvis asked.  
“Yes.” Echo said. Parvis smiled. “Parvis, you fantastic bastard.”  
“So there’s no one conscious in there?” Nilesy asked.  
“Nope.” Parvis said, looking incredibly proud of himself. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get this done!”  
They walked down the corridor quietly and entered a stark white antechamber with a door on each of the four walls. Duncan was out cold on the floor, but no one else had come into the room.  
“Which way should we go?” Parvis asked.  
“I thought you said you knew where the Echoes were?” Echo said.  
“Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I?” Parvis said. “It technically wasn’t a lie, Duncan told me they were through one of those doors.”  
“Did he tell you that before or after you knocked him out?” Nilesy asked.  
“It was definitely while I was holding a knife to his throat.” Parvis said. “He didn’t specify which door before he started yelling for Hannah. That’s when I knocked him out.”  
“Why do you have a knife? Better question, why did Strife allow you anywhere _near_ a knife?” Rythian asked.  
“I didn’t tell him I had it.” Parvis shrugged. “But that’s not the point, which door are we choosing?”  
“That one.” Rythian, Nilesy and Echo all pointed to different doors.  
“Oh for god’s _sake_.” Echo sighed. “May I remind you I can sense other Echoes? We need to go that way.”   
“Who put you in charge?” Nilesy asked.  
“I did. Follow me.” Echo said, walking through the door to her left. She assumed the others followed her into the new corridor. There was a door at the end, and when she opened it, her vision went blurry, her head spun, a wave of nausea came over her and she stumbled into the room, barely keeping herself up…  
 __

* * *

Echo opened her eyes once the dizziness and nausea had subsided. She was in a brick room with machines lining the walls, which felt both familiar and strange. Echo knew she’d been here before, but a very long time ago…  
The basement! It was the basement from YOGS! Echo looked around. It looked exactly the same as it had sixteen years ago. Echo heard a voice behind her.  
“Echo?”  
Echo turned around and saw… herself? No, no, it wasn’t her. It was Kim! Kim was here and smiling and most importantly alive, just on the other side of the room!  
“Kim!” Echo yelled, running towards her.   
“Echo!” Kim didn’t move, but held out her arms to receive Echo…  
A gunshot rang out across the room, and Kim collapsed to the ground. Echo screamed and looked around frantically to see where the bullet had come from, still running towards her sister. There he stood, pistol raised, looking exactly the same as he had sixteen years ago…  
Lewis Brindley.  
Echo screamed again. This wasn’t real, this wasn’t how it had happened, this couldn’t be real, this wasn’t _**real!**_

* * *

“Echo!” Rythian shouted as Echo stumbled. He ran towards her, but she disappeared into a cloud of smoke. “Echo? What the-” Rythian looked behind him, but the door was gone, replaced with a stark white wall. Nilesy and Parvis were nowhere in sight. He was alone.  
Rythian looked around him. He was in a long dark corridor, which seemed to go on infinitely, but Rythian knew logically it had to end at some point. Rythian felt a sense of dread rise up from the pit of his stomach. Where had Echo gone? Where were Nilesy and Parvis? Were they all okay? Most importantly, where was he? He glanced around again. He was alone. Should he stay put, or start walking?  
Staying put wouldn’t do much good, Rythian had to find the others, make sure they were all okay. Walking down the corridor didn’t look very inviting, but he wasn’t afraid of the dark. Darkness couldn’t hurt him; it was just an absence of light. Rythian walked down the corridor, but soon became aware it was just the same corridor repeating itself over and over again. He tried walking back the way he’d come, but the same thing happened. Eventually, he slumped down against the wall, exhausted.   
He was alone, and by the looks of it, and the deafening silence surrounding him, no one was coming for him.  
He was alone.  
No one was coming for him…

* * *

Parvis wasn’t paying much attention to the others until Rythian shouted out. Even then, he tripped over Rythian’s leg and crashed to the floor.  
Parvis groaned and pushed himself onto his knees. “Goddamnit, Rythian.” He hissed. He looked around, but he wasn’t in the corridor anymore. Rythian and Echo were gone, and Nilesy wasn’t behind him. He was in a forest, the corridor seemingly vanishing as he fell.  
“Okay, that’s weird.” Parvis said. “Forests don’t just appear in buildings. What is this, Narnia?”  
“Parvis?” Someone shouted from through the trees.  
“Strife?” Parvis shouted back, standing up and brushing himself off. Why was Strife out in the forest? Better question, why were either of them in a forest in the first place?  
“Parv?” Strife said with more urgency. Parvis tried to work out which direction Strife was calling him from. He picked a direction and went with it.   
“Strife?” Parvis shouted. “Where are you?”  
 _“ALEX!”_ Strife screamed.  
“WILL?” Parvis yelled, running towards where he thought Strife was. _“WILL?”_  
Strife continued to scream, slowly becoming more and more incoherent. Parvis burst into a clearing just as Strife stopped screaming. Strife was lying in the middle of the clearing, covered in blood. Parvis knelt next to him and pulled Strife into his arms.  
“Strife?” He asked, almost in tears now. Strife didn’t move. “Come on, Strifey, this isn’t funny.” Parvis whispered. Strife didn’t move. “Come on, talk to me!   
“Will?”

* * *

Nilesy watched as first Echo, then Rythian, and then Parvis disappeared. He walked forward and found himself in a low ceilinged, empty room. He glanced behind him. The door was gone.  
“Of course. That would be too easy.” Nilesy sighed. He didn’t know where the others were, but he hoped they were okay. Of course they were okay, they were a tough bunch, a smart bunch, even Parvis was when it really mattered.  
Nilesy reached up and realised he could touch the ceiling of the room easily. He frowned. This wasn’t exactly weird, Nilesy was quite tall, but ceilings weren’t normally this low.  
For some reason, Nilesy’s feet felt cold. He looked down and realised the room was quickly filling up with water. Nilesy spun around, looking for any sort of exit. There wasn’t one, no doors, no windows, nothing. Nilesy tried to press himself against the ceiling to avoid the water. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, accepting his fate, the only fate he wouldn’t wish upon his worst enemy.  
Drowning.  
The pool boys worst fear…  
Was drowning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was dramatic  
> No chapter Wednesday because I'm away from my laptop for a few days :(


	8. Whatever You Saw, Wasn't Real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mission isn't going quite as planned.  
> But it can't get any worse...  
> Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been the bane of my existence for a few weeks now, and I finally finished it yesterday.  
> I'm not 100% happy with it, but hey, you all deserve something!

Rythian was the first to wake up. His vision was blurred, and he was dizzy, but he could just make out a figure crouching over him. All he could gather was they were blonde, they were talking to him, and they were shaking his arm.  
“Rythian? Come on dude, wake up! Wake up!” She said. It was definitely a she, and she sounded frantic, panicked. Rythian’s vision finally cleared, and he saw Hannah crouching over him in a dimly lit room.  
Rythian scrambled backwards away from her, and a hit a wall. “What the _hell_ just happened?” He cried, secretly glad that it was over, that he was no longer alone.  
“Wha- I swear on Duncan’s life, whatever you saw, wasn’t real. The room you were in is meant to trigger your worst nightmare if you don’t deactivate the security system first.” Hannah shuddered as a memory surfaced. “I’ve made that mistake too many times.”  
“We deactivated the security systems.” Rythian said. “And we cut off the power.”  
“The security system is connected to the back-up generator.” Hannah said. “And Strife did a terrible job, Tee fixed it almost straight away.”  
“Why are you here, to kill us?” Rythian asked, deciding to ignore the fact that Hannah knew it had been Strife who had deactivated the security system. “Or something worse?”  
“I’m here to help you; I never wanted any of this.” Hannah insisted. “I just want to free the Copies and get out of this damned place, away from them. I need your help.”  
“ _Our_ help?” Rythian laughed. “What do you need us for? You could just kill us or imprison us, which I assume is what you’ve been told to do.”  
“I’ve been told to do many terrible things, and I regret all of them.” Hannah insisted, then she sighed. “God, why did I wake you up first? Echo would have been much easier to talk to.”   
As if on cue, Echo sat bolt upright and screamed. Rythian had been too fixated on Hannah to notice Echo, Parvis and Nilesy were all lying near him, and they were no longer in the corridor they’d been in when they’d passed out.   
_“KIM!”_ Echo screamed. _“KIM!”_  
Rythian grabbed Echo’s arm and she turned towards him frantically, her eyes filled with terror. She was sobbing, tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor.  
“Echo, it wasn’t real.” Rythian told her. “I don’t know what you saw, but I promise it was just a nightmare. You need to pull yourself together.”  
“Kim…” Echo whispered.  
“I know, I know, but we need to get out of here.” Rythian patted her arm gently and smiled. “Look, Hannah’s come to help us.”  
“Hello.” Hannah waved.  
“Hi.” Echo said coldly. “We need to get to the Echoes.”  
“Yeah, but we need to wake Parvis and Nilesy up first.” Rythian said. At that moment, Parvis woke up.  
“Where’s Will?” Parvis asked frantically. “What happened?”  
“Fiona was compromised, she and Strife left in Rythian’s car.” Hannah informed him. “They’re long gone.”  
“How did you know where Fiona and Strife were.” Echo asked. “And how did you know it was Rythian’s car?”  
“Rythian’s car is purple, Strife was wearing those dumb sunglasses, and we’ve been tracking Fiona since Simon recognised you last month.” Hannah said. “You aren’t the subtlest of people.”  
“The sunglasses are dumb, aren’t they?” Parvis said. “I’ve tried telling him, but he never listens.”  
“You named your lab after the school we went to.” Rythian said. “Subtlety isn’t your forte either.”   
“Whatever.” Hannah said. Nilesy woke up coughing and spluttering, as though he’d been underwater.  
“Bloody _hell_.” Nilesy coughed. “Whose idea was this?”  
“Echo’s.” Rythian and Parvis said together.  
“Stop blaming everything on me!” Echo exclaimed. “Are you alright Nilesy?”  
“No?” Nilesy coughed. “Drowning isn’t fun, real or imaginary.”   
“Your worst fear is _drowning_ of all things?” Rythian asked. “That is very ironic, everything considered.”  
“Shut up, let’s go.” Nilesy stood up shakily, along with everyone else. Hannah lead them through a set of double doors into a dimly lit room, with what looked like glass cells lining the walls. Once everyone was inside, the double doors shut automatically behind them. Hannah turned around and stared at the four of them, tears in her eyes.  
“I’m so sorry.” She said.   
“What?” Echo asked, puzzled. Suddenly, someone grabbed her by the arms and shoved her into one of the glass cells. Echo barely had time to fight back before the cell door was shut in her face and locked by a tall bald man in a suit and sunglasses. Echo pounded on the glass and screamed as Rythian, Nilesy and Parvis were overpowered by three more similarly dressed men. Nilesy was taken completely by surprise, knocked out and thrown into the cell opposite Echo’s. Parvis fought hard, but lost his knife early on in the fight. It skittered across the room, stopping at Hannah’s feet. Parvis was pushed into the cell next to Echo, where he promptly burst into tears. Rythian managed to knock over the guy who attacked him, and the man who took out Nilesy. The other two dragged him into the cell next to Nilesy’s and locked him in. The men left through the double doors. They were locked in the cells, Echo screaming for Hannah to let her out and pounding on the glass, progressively getting slower and slower, Parvis sobbing and rocking himself back and forth on the ground, Rythian kicking the hell out of the wall, trying to get to Nilesy, who was unconscious.   
They were trapped.  
Hannah stood in the middle of the dimly lit room, watching them all scream, fight, cry. She picked up Parvis’ knife and pocketed it, just in case.  
She’d betrayed them all, not for the first time, but please, _please_ , she thought, let it be the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would be sorry for making the characters lives hell, but I'm not.  
> I probably will be next chapter, but I'm not now.


	9. I'm So Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The penultimate chapter is here, and things aren't going well for Echo and the gang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Imagine Dragons reference wasn't intentional, I promise!  
> Quick reminder, I have a Tumblr (which I barely use but shush)! Follow theprettiestoflights if you want to ask me a question or shout at me anonymously for what I did to your favourite character!

“It’s just down there.” Toby pointed down the corridor, which was lit only by red emergency lights.  
“You sure?” Smith asked.  
“Of course I’m sure, I have a map.” Toby said, waving the map in front of Smith’s face.  
Smith batted the map away with his hand. “Get off.”  
“Okay, be quiet, and be careful.” Katie said quietly. “I’ll go first.”  
“The hell you will.” Trott whispered. “I’m going first. Give me the map.”  
Toby handed Trott the map reluctantly, and they crept down the corridor, Trott at the front, Katie just behind him, Smith behind her, and Toby bringing up the rear. They found themselves in an empty antechamber, with a door on each wall. Excluding the door they had come in through, only one other door was open. There was a control panel next to it, assumedly to deactivate any security system. Smith smashed it with a sledgehammer he’d ‘found lying around’, insisting destroying it was easier than trying to deactivate it, and they walked through the door. They didn’t bother being quiet this time, as Smith had made enough noise to alert anyone nearby to their presence. They found themselves in another empty room.  
“I’m sensing a theme with the whole ‘empty rooms’ thing.” Trott said. There were imprints where things used to be, but it looked like everything had been removed  
“It’s like they hiding something.” Katie whispered sarcastically. She nodded to the door on the opposite side of the room. “Is it through there, Toby?”  
“Probably.” Toby shrugged. “I don’t have the map anymore.”  
“It’s the only door leading from here.” Smith said. “Chances are the others and the Echoes are through there.”  
“Let’s be careful anyway.” Trott said. “I’ll go first.”  
“No, let me go first.” Smith insisted.  
“Alright then.” Trott shrugged.  
They pushed through the double doors into another dimly lit room, with glass cells lining the walls. In the first four were a bleeding Echo, a sobbing Parvis, an unconscious Nilesy and a screaming Rythian. Katie ran to the door of Echoes cell, which was labelled ‘Specimen 5’, and Smith ran to Rythian’s, trying to calm him down before he hurt himself. Echo had split open her knuckles when she’d tried punching down the door, and was trying to stop the bleeding using her sleeve.  
“Echo!” Katie shouted, smacking the glass with her fist to get Echo’s attention. Echo looked up and ran to the door. She tried shouting something, but Katie couldn’t hear her.  
“Rythian, for god’s sake, you’re going to break something, and it won’t be the wall.” Smith shouted, but Rythian wasn’t listening. Rythian didn’t care.  
“Echo, don’t worry, we’ll get you out of there.” Katie promised, still trying to figure out what Echo was saying.  
“It’s a trap, they knew we were coming!” Echo yelled. “Katie, look out!”  
“What?” Katie asked, still unsure of what Echo was trying to tell her. Katie heard a click from behind her, like a gun being cocked.  
“Don’t move.”  
Katie recognised the voice, a vague memory she’d suppressed for years.  
Simon Lane.  
“Alright, turn around, don’t do anything funny.” Simon said. Katie turned around slowly with her hands up. Tee, Duncan and Lewis were aiming pistols at Smith, Trott’s and Toby’s heads. Smith was slowly backing away from Rythian’s cell towards Trott and Toby. Rythian had stopped kicking the wall and Parvis had stopped crying, but Nilesy was still unconscious and Echo’s hand hadn’t stopped bleeding. Hannah was standing back, regretting her life choices.  
“If you let us go, you can keep Toby.” Trott joked. Katie smacked him on the back of the head. “Ow!”  
“Not the time, Chris.” She hissed.  
“It seems your plan has failed.” Lewis smiled. “And if you couldn’t tell, we’ve moved everything far away. There’s no proof anything ever happened here.”  
“Well that’s an issue.” Trott said.  
“Did we even have a plan?” Smith asked.  
“I honestly didn’t think we’d get this far.” Toby added.  
“Neither did I.” Katie said.  
“You’d have gotten much further if Tee hadn’t dealt with Martyn and Ross straight away.” Duncan said.  
“You did kill him, you BASTARDS.” Smith yelled. Without warning, he smacked the pistol out of Tee’s hand, taking Tee by surprise, and tackled him into the wall of Nilesy’s cell with a dull thud. Katie took the opportunity to clumsily disarm Simon and kick him in the back of the knee, sending him sprawling to the floor. Toby managed to duck away from a distracted Lewis and hide behind Katie, who was still in front of Echo’s door. Duncan tried to shoot Trott in the head, but Hannah grabbed his gun, put a bullet in the ceiling and tried to wrestle it out of his hands, screaming something about promises and betrayal. They fought over the weapon like children in a playground. Smith started punching Tee repeatedly, screaming bloody murder.  
“Aren’t you going to stop him?” Katie shouted to Trott as she stepped over Simon and away from Toby.  
“Nope.” Trott said, watching Hannah and Duncan struggle with the gun, amused.  
“Got it!” Toby shouted as the door to Echo’s cell flew open. Echo ran out and hugged Toby. “Hey, you’re getting blood on my shirt!”  
“It was a terrible shirt anyway.” Echo said. Toby looked mildly offended. “Get the others out so we can leave.”  
“I’m on it.” Toby said, running to the door of Parvis’ cell. Suddenly, there was a gun shot. Memories of what happened to Kim came flooding back to Echo. She was fifteen, she was in the basement at YOGS, she was wearing that damned Kimono again, Kim was dead in her arms…  
“DUNCAN!” Hannah screamed, snapping Echo back to the present. While Hannah and Duncan were wrestling with the pistol, Hannah had accidentally pulled the trigger and shot Duncan in the chest. Everyone stared at Duncan, who was lying on the floor, blood staining his lab coat. Hannah was sobbing, the pistol still in her hand. Trott knocked Simon out, who was still on the floor clutching his knee, while everyone was distracted, and Toby opened Parvis’ cell door. No one had stopped Smith’s assault on Tee, and Nilesy had woken up.  
“Doesn’t Smith have a knife?” Toby asked as he started on Rythian’s door. “And a sledgehammer?”  
“I took them away from him and hid them when he wasn’t looking so he didn’t kill anyone.” Katie replied. “I’m trying to be the responsible one.”  
Lewis backed away from them all, having lost his pistol and all of his allies. “Alright, I’m sure we can settle this like civilised adults.”  
“I’m sure we could.” Katie said as Toby opened Rythian’s door and moved on to Nilesy’s, who looked extremely confused. “But you killed at least three people, and tried to kill many more. I don’t really think civilised is a language you understand.”  
“Alright Smith, we need to leave them recognisable.” Rythian said, dragging Smith off of Tee, who was almost certainly unconscious.  
“No, I’m gonna kill him, I’m gonna FUCKING KILL HIM!” Smith screamed. He reached into his pocket and came out with nothing. “WHERE THE HELL IS MY KNIFE?”  
“In your leg if you don’t stop yelling. Now come on.” Katie helped Rythian drag Smith away from Tee, who hadn’t moved. Toby opened Nilesy’s door and held a hand out.  
“You okay?” Toby asked.  
“What the hell is happening?” Nilesy asked, taking Toby’s hand and pulling himself to his feet.  
“Hannah accidentally shot Duncan, Smith beat the hell out of Tee, Katie and Trott took down Simon, and Lewis is trying to bargain with us. Everyone else is fine.” Toby said.  
“And I missed everything. Fantastic.” Nilesy said.  
“Alright, Lewis, seeing as we are obviously doing much better than you, how about we form a truce?” Echo suggested. “You leave us the hell alone, and stop the experiments; we’ll leave you alive.”  
“What experiments?” Lewis grinned menacingly. “If you hadn’t noticed, there’s nothing here. No proof. Just a dead body, which I’m sure Hannah will help me pin on you- “  
Another gunshot, right between Lewis’ eyes. This time, from Hannah.  
“Shut up.” Hannah said angrily. She turned around, dropped the pistol, and looked up at Parvis. She pulled a knife out of her pocket, the one Parvis had dropped earlier. She held the blade and handed it to him.  
“Thanks.” Parvis said.  
“Okay, who let you near a knife?” Katie asked, trying to take the knife out of Parvis’ hand. Parvis held it above his head so she couldn’t reach it.  
“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled.  
Katie put her head in her hands. “We should have bought Strife.”  
Hannah turned to Nilesy and pulled him into a hug. “You’re still the best friend I ever had.”  
Nilesy looked surprised at first, but soon accepted the hug. “I’ll over look the fact your boyfriend tried to murder me and agree.”  
Hannah pulled away and smiled weakly and looked down at Simon, then Tee, and finally to Duncan. “I’m so sorry, little brother. Dad wouldn’t be proud.” Hannah picked up the pistol and checked how many bullets were left. There was only one.  
“Hannah, what are you doing?” Toby asked suspiciously. Hannah raised the pistol to her temple.  
“Hannah…” Rythian warned. “Put the gun down, we can talk about this.”  
“I’m sorry.” Hannah said. “Say goodbye to Strife and Zoey for me.”  
“Hannah, come on, this isn’t the answer.” Trott said.  
“Yeah, we’re not exactly going to hand you over to the police. I’m not sure how we’d explain what’s left of Tee’s face.” Smith joked.  
Hannah laughed weakly. “I’m sorry, for everything.”  
“Hannah, NO!” Echo shouted, but it was too late.  
Hannah had pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might make a Tumblr post about the original ending for this chapter (I changed it several times oops), if anyone's interested.


	10. Everything Will Be Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ending was never going to be happy. It's peaceful, but not happy.

The sunset was stunning. Echo felt the cool breeze blowing through her short black hair as she watched the sky turn from light blue to fiery red, orange and yellow to inky black. Rythian was standing to the left of her, Nilesy was on her right, staring peacefully out into the sunset.  
They’d left Lewis, Hannah and Duncan dead and Tee and Simon unconscious on the floor of YogLabs, snuck out of the side entrances and went their separate ways home. That night, through a series of text messages and phone calls, they had decided to meet up and ‘have a memorial for the fallen’ as Trott had called it. They agreed to hold the memorial on top of a cliff on the coast, far away from Bristol, from The Young Offenders Grade School, which was now a pile of rubble, from YogLabs, from everything that had happened.  
There had been a minor disagreement on who the memorial would be for. Ross Hornby and Martyn Littlewood, of course, but Nilesy and Echo argued that Hannah Rutherford should be included, considering she’d wanted to help them, and she’d dealt with Lewis Brindley and, unintentionally, Duncan Jones for them. After some time, everyone, some rather begrudgingly, agreed to include Hannah.  
The memorial wasn’t anything special. They made a small campfire on the cliff, talked about Ross, Hannah and Martyn, and then watched the sunset together. The only surviving member of the group who wasn’t present was Zoey, who was still safely locked up in prison. Rythian had updated her on everything that had happened. Zoey hadn’t voiced an opinion, only that she was glad it was all over.   
Echo sighed. The sunset would have been beautiful world if it hadn’t been such a terrible week. She could sense new Echoes nearby; ones she had never felt before. Echo turned around and scanned the area. Lalnable was standing under a tree, watching them watch the sunset, but it wasn’t him Echo could feel. These Echoes were female, and there were two of them. Echo walked over to Lalnable with her hands in her jacket pockets.  
“Can you feel them too?” Echo asked.  
Lalnable nodded. “I know one of them. Zoey’s Copy.” Lalnable informed her. “You’ve never met Captain Proasheck, have you?”  
“No, I don’t think so.” Echo shrugged. “Although at this point, I could have and not realised.”  
“Trust me, you would know. You realised I was an Echo.” Lalnable smiled.  
“To be honest, you and Duncan aren’t all that similar.” Echo said. “Do you recognise the other one?”  
Lalnable thought for a moment, before shaking his head. “No idea. Never met her.”  
“Lalnable Hector?” A voice came from behind the tree. “I thought you were dead.” A red-headed girl stepped out and smiled. She looked almost exactly like Zoey.  
“I thought you went off to explore the world, Captain Proasheck.” Lalnable said.  
“I did, I thought I’d better come back.” Captain Proasheck said.   
“Good choice. Oh, this is Echo Richards.” Lalnable patted Echo’s shoulder. “Her original died over sixteen years ago.”  
“You survived sixteen years without an original?” Captain Proasheck asked. “How? Copies usually fade when they lose their original.”  
“Echo can survive without her original, you can be far away from yours. We all have different benefits.” Lalnable said.  
“What’s your benefit?” Echo asked Lalnable.  
“I’m a sociopath.” Lalnable said.  
“That’s a benefit?” Echo asked. Lalnable just shrugged.  
“More like psychopath.” Captain Proasheck giggled.  
“Captain!” Someone shouted from a short distance away. A brown haired girl with a rainbow headband came running towards them. Echo recognised her, but she wasn’t sure where from.  
“Oh there you are!” Captain Proasheck smiled. “Where did you go?”  
“Where did _I_ go? I lost you when you ran off up here! You seriously need to slow your roll.” The girl said, clearly out of breath. Something clicked in Echo’s mind, the voice connecting with a face and a name.  
“Are you… Fiona’s Echo?” Echo asked.  
“You know Fiona?” The girl asked. “Sorry, Commander Saberial, nice to meet ya.”  
“Echo Richards.” Echo smiled. “Yeah, me and Fiona are friends. Although I didn’t know she had an Echo.”   
“She doesn’t know either.” Commander Saberial said. “She never noticed, I guess.”  
“Oh.” Echo said. She remembered Duncan saying some people went their entire lives without realising they had an Echo. “She’s here, if you want to meet her.”  
“Fiona’s _here_?” Commander Saberial asked. “Why? What have you dragged her into?”  
“Don’t worry, she didn’t get hurt. As far as I know, she helped hack into a security system, punched a guy in the face and then drove off in someone else’s car.” Echo said, glancing over at Fiona, who was still watching the sunset with Nilesy.  
“Sounds like something I would do.” Commander Saberial laughed.  
“I’ll go grab her and try to convince her she isn’t going mad.” Echo jogged over to Fiona, who was now talking to Parvis and Strife. “Hey Strife, Parv, Fiona.”  
“Hey Echo.” Strife smiled. Parvis said nothing, which was quite unlike him. He hadn’t spoken since they’d left YogLabs, and hadn’t let Strife out of his sight.  
“Could I borrow you for a minute Fi? I’ve got something really cool to show you.” Echo smiled at Parvis, hoping to receive some kind of reaction. She got nothing.  
“If you’ve burnt down my coffee shop I will kill you.” Fiona said jokingly, glancing over at Parvis. He stared off into space.  
“Good luck with that.” Strife laughed. “Echo was the champion of every fight she got into at school.”  
“No one dared challenge me after a while, I was stuck fighting other Echoes who wandered into the school grounds.” Echo said. “Come on, Fiona.”  
“See you later Strife, Parvis.” Fiona smiled. She patted Parvis’ arm gently. “You’ll be okay, I promise.” Parvis looked at Fiona blankly, and tried his best to smile. Echo and Fiona walked back towards the tree together. Commander Saberial had ducked out of sight.  
“What’s wrong with him?” Echo asked quietly.  
Fiona shook her head. “Something must have happened while you were in YogLabs, something snapped. He won’t talk to Strife about it, but won’t leave his side. Do you have any ideas what might have triggered this?”  
“The nightmare room.” Echo sighed. Fiona gave her a puzzled look. “There was a room we went through that showed us our worst nightmare. Mine was watching Kim die again, Nilesy’s was drowning, Rythian’s was being lost and alone, and Parv’s must have been something to do with Strife.”  
“Makes sense, I guess.” Fiona said as they reached Lalnable.  
“Hello Fiona.” Lalnable smiled.  
“Hi, Not-Duncan.” Fiona said. Fiona hadn’t gotten used to the idea of the Echoes yet, and kept calling them by their originals name.  
“Hi, I’m Captain Proasheck, Zoey’s Echo. Fiona, right?” Captain Proasheck held out a hand, and Fiona shook it.  
“Yeah, nice to meet you.” Fiona smiled.   
“Okay, you have to promise not to freak out.” Echo said.  
“Now I’m really worried.” Fiona said. “But I promise not to freak out.”  
“Don’t worry, she won’t kill you.” Captain Proasheck smiled.  
“Probably.” Lalnable added under his breath.  
Commander Saberial stepped out form behind the tree. “Alright, Not-Me?”  
Fiona stood in silence for a moment. “You’re… me.” She said, stunned.  
“Yes and no.” Commander Saberial said. “I’m you’re Echo, Saberial.”  
“That’s awesome!” Fiona laughed. Echo smiled and left Fiona by the tree with Lalnable, Captain Proasheck and Commander Saberial. She wandered over to Toby, who was staring out into the darkness alone.  
“Alright Toby?” She asked, standing next to him.  
“Not really.” Toby sighed. “Martyn’s dead.”  
“Yeah.” Echo said.  
“Do you miss Kim?” He asked.  
“Of course I do, everyday.” She said.   
“Does it ever go away? The feeling of losing them?” Toby asked.  
“Not really. It gets better, yeah, but it’ll never go away.” Echo put a hand on his shoulder. “But that means we’ll never forget them.”  
“You can’t forget this time.” He said. Echo knew what he meant.  
“I won’t.” She insisted.  
“You promise me you won’t forget; you won’t leave us again. For all our sakes.” Toby said. “YogLabs broke Parv, but I know he’s not showing it, but Smith is cracking too. Katie hasn’t slept in days, Trott’s stressing over them both, Rythian is lost without Zoey, and Nilesy hasn’t spoken since Hannah blew her brains out.”   
“How do you know all that?” Echo asked.  
“They told me. I guess they trust me with that sort of thing.” Toby shrugged. “Strife’s hands are shaking, have you noticed?”  
Echo glanced over at Strife, whose hands were indeed shaking. “I think Fiona’s the only one of us who’s doing okay.”  
“Maybe we should put her in charge instead of Zoey and Katie.” Toby said with a small smile.  
“We need to keep her sane, not break her sprit.” Echo said. “Do you think we’ll be okay, Toby?”  
“You know what? I think we will. Lewis hopefully won’t be back for a while, and until then, we’ll be fine.   
**_“Everything will be okay.”_**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sixteen Years Later has finally reached it's end.  
> Will there be another sequel? Probably not, at least not for now.  
> As always, thank you for reading.  
> I love you all!


End file.
